Chapter 20

Pashhur Persecutes Jeremiah

1 When Pashhur the priest, the son of aImmer, who was bchief officer in the house of the Lord, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things,

2 Pashhur had Jeremiah the prophet abeaten and put him in the bstocks that were at the upper cBenjamin Gate, which was by the house of the Lord.

3 On the next day, when Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, “Pashhur is not the name the Lord has acalled you, but rather 1bMagor-missabib.

4 “For thus says the Lord, ‘Behold, I am going to make you a aterror to yourself and to all your friends; and while byour eyes look on, they will fall by the sword of their enemies. So I will cgive over all Judah to the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will carry them away as dexiles to Babylon and will slay them with the sword.

5 ‘I will also give over all the awealth of this city, all its produce and all its costly things; even all the treasures of the kings of Judah I will give over to the bhand of their enemies, and they will plunder them, take them away and bring them to Babylon.

6 ‘And you, aPashhur, and all who live in your house will go into captivity; and you will enter Babylon, and there you will die and there you will be buried, you and all your bfriends to whom you have cfalsely prophesied.’ ”

Jeremiah’s Complaint

7 O Lord, You have deceived me and I was deceived;

You have aovercome me and prevailed.

I have become a blaughingstock all day long;

Everyone cmocks me.

8 For each time I speak, I cry aloud;

I aproclaim violence and destruction,

Because for me the bword of the Lord has 1resulted

In reproach and derision all day long.

9 But if I say, “I will not aremember Him

Or speak anymore in His name,”

Then in bmy heart it becomes like a burning fire

Shut up in my bones;

And I am weary of holding it in,

And cI cannot endure it.

10 For aI have heard the whispering of many,

“bTerror on every side!

cDenounce him; yes, let us denounce him!”

1All my dtrusted friends,

Watching for my fall, say:

“Perhaps he will be 2deceived, so that we may eprevail against him

And take our revenge on him.”

11 But the aLord is with me like a dread champion;

Therefore my bpersecutors will stumble and not prevail.

They will be utterly ashamed, because they have 1failed,

With an ceverlasting disgrace that will not be forgotten.

12 Yet, O Lord of hosts, You who atest the righteous,

Who see the 1mind and the heart;

Let me bsee Your vengeance on them;

For cto You I have set forth my cause.

13 aSing to the Lord, praise the Lord!

For He has bdelivered the soul of the needy one

From the hand of evildoers.

14 Cursed be the aday when I was born;

Let the day not be blessed when my mother bore me!

15 Cursed be the man who brought the news

To my father, saying,

“A 1ababy boy has been born to you!”

And made him very happy.

16 But let that man be like the cities

Which the Lord aoverthrew without 1relenting,

And let him hear an boutcry in the morning

And a 2shout of alarm at noon;

17 Because he did not akill me 1before birth,

So that my mother would have been my grave,

And her womb ever pregnant.

18 Why did I ever come forth from the womb

To alook on trouble and sorrow,

So that my bdays have been spent in cshame?